Medicating our goldfish could push them over the edge
Medicating our goldfish seems like the right thing to do. Most sick fish are suffering from sick water, not infectious disease. If your goldfish is sick, avoid using medications until the water quality has been improved. Once this is accomplished, natural treatments could be the key to improving its health. Medications destroy bad bacteria, but they also destroy beneficial bacteria in your goldfish house and in the fish’s intestinal tract. After medicinal treatment, the bad bacteria will return twice fold, having built an immunity and the conditions being right
Both good and bad bugs can build immunity to any and all treatments medicinal or natural. The one thing bad bugs cannot build immunity to is oxygen. Bad bacteria cannot tolerate high levels of oxygen, whereas goldfish and beneficial bacteria alike flourish in heavily oxygenated water. Create an environment your fish can thrive in, and you’ve created an environment the bad bugs can’t survive in
Medicate goldfish
Medicating our goldfish
If you have already medicated your goldfish tank, aquarium, or pond, but you believe your fish is not improving or is getting worse, and wish to try a natural remedy, remove the medications first by performing small and frequent water changes over the course of two or three days. Test for ammonia and nitrite frequently. If your goldfish house was cycled, it may not be any longer. Medicinal antibiotics destroy the good bugs as well as the bad
Most sick fish are suffering from sick water, not infectious disease. If your goldfish is sick, avoid using medications until the water quality has been improved. Once this is accomplished, natural treatments could be the key to improving its health. Medications destroy bad bacteria, but they also destroy beneficial bacteria in your goldfish house and in the fish’s intestinal tract. After medicinal treatment, the bad bacteria will return twice fold, having built an immunity and the conditions being right
Goldfish medication
Medicating our goldfish
Both good and bad bugs can build immunity to any and all treatments medicinal or natural. The one thing bad bugs cannot build immunity to is oxygen. Bad bacteria cannot tolerate high levels of oxygen, whereas goldfish and beneficial bacteria alike flourish in heavily oxygenated water. Create an environment your fish can thrive in, and you’ve created an environment the bad bugs can’t survive in
If you have already medicated your goldfish tank, aquarium, or pond, but you believe your fish is not improving or is getting worse, and wish to try a natural remedy, remove the medications first by performing small and frequent water changes over the course of two or three days. Test for ammonia and nitrite frequently. If your goldfish house was cycled, it may not be any longer. Medicinal antibiotics destroy the good bugs as well as the bad
Medicating our goldfish
In every school there is one goldfish that is more sensitive than the others. Before you medicate, check the temperature and the pH levels making sure they’re in the comfort zone. Test regularly for nitrates in an established tank. Test for ammonia and nitrite in a tank or pond that hasn’t completed the nitrogen cycle
Your goldfish may not be sick at all, just on the sensitive side or living in an unhealthy environment
To avoid infection, new goldfish are often placed in quarantine, and these set ups are typically the same. The fish is soon subjected to ammonia, and the water becomes low in oxygen. Within a few days the fish sickens, the goldfish keeper convinced the fish had been infected at the time of purchase, unaware they were the cause. New fish fare much better when they’re placed in the main tank or pond after purchase, but only after acclimating them properly and a salt bath performed. If a garlic or salt treatment is in process in the main tank or pond, none of the old fish will be at risk of infection
Medication sold at pet shops
Transmittable disease in the goldfish industry is rare. If a new fish was a carrier of a disease, it could take much longer than the typical four days in quarantine for it to become obvious. The best way to avoid the risk of infection is to create a healthy ecosystem in the main tank or pond, so all of the fish have healthy immune systems
Use isolation tanks for brief time periods only, or add a pond pump for extended stays
Goldfish that have been injured or have a floating issue, and are unable to navigate current or those requiring medicinal antibiotics may require a short stay in a hospital tank. If you find it necessary to isolate a goldfish, and there’s no pond pump available, use a square tub that is shallow and has a large surface area
Medicating our goldfish
Fill the tub with fresh, worked over water; use water treatment that converts chlorine and ammonia treating the entire amount of water in the tub daily. The water should only be as deep as the fish is long from head to tail. Set up a fan so that it blows across the surface, disturbing it
Read about supersaturated gases
Acclimate the goldfish to the tub water by scooping it up in a container with water from its main tank or pond. Perform small and frequent water changes in the container using the tub water as your freshwater source, taking 15 minutes for every 5 ppm of nitrates in the main tank or pond water
When you believe most of the container water has been exchanged, transfer the fish to the tub. For every day the goldfish is in isolation, exchange 50% of the water using fresh, worked over, tap water. Treat entire amount of water in tub daily using water treatment that converts ammonia and nitrite. Do not allow ammonia or nitrite levels to exceed 1. ppm
The fish in the photo above has been placed in a tub with medication that destroys bad bacteria, but the fish is not suffering from bad bacteria infection; it’s been burned by ammonia. Having lived in an unhealthy environment for so long, the medication may actually weaken it
Goldfish that have been affected by nitrates cannot tolerate shallow water
Before using a natural remedy, remove medications in your aquarium or pond by following the instructions found in the link below
Try our Natural Remedies instead of using chemicals in your fish house
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Author: Brenda Rand